90% Silver Dimes
There are two popular ways to collect silver coins: as proofs from a mint and as circulated coins with heritage. For beginners to the coin collecting game, one of the most popular ways to get into the silver coin collecting market is through silver dimes. Here at Coin Blogger, we know that 90% silver dimes are popular, so we thought we’d explore them a little bit.
Up until about 1964, most coins in the United States were minted from silver. Most of thm were minted as 90% silver and 10% alloy (usually copper). The most well-known of the 90% silver dimes that are collected are the Roosevelt and the Mercury coins.
Mercury silver dimes were minted from 1916 to 1945 and are a 90% silver. Proofs were made until 1942 and then only circulated versions were made due to the war. In 1946, the Mint then changed the design and minted the Roosevelt silver dimes, shortly after the President’s death. It is, by the way, the Roosevelt 90% silver dimes that gave the March of Dimes its name. Roosevelt, being a polio victim, worked hard to get the foundation into the mainstream.
Until 1964, the Roosevelt 90% silver dimes were made of 90:10 silver:copper. That then changed in 1964-5 to become copper clad in copper-nickel. New all-silver collector sets became available from the Mint in 1992.
The most popular, low-cost, and fun way to find silver coins is to buy bulk bags of circulated silver coins, which are usually sold by weight. The coins have little collectible value and are sold mostly as silver alloy. Many new collectors like to sort through the coins from the bag, however, to hunt for rare gems or to create bags of only dimes, only quarters, and so forth. This is probably the best way for a newbie on a low budget to get started with silver dimes.
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